The situation had now reached a point where he no longer took into consideration what these men might be to Meleese.
As they continued into the northwest Howland noted that the thicker forest was gradually clearing into wide areas of small banskian pine, and that the rock ridges and dense swamps which had impeded their progress were becoming less numerous.

An hour before noon, after a tedious climb to the top of a frozen ridge, Croisset pointed down into a vast level plain lying between them and other great ridges far to the north.
"That is a bit of the Barren Lands that creeps down between those mountains off there, M'seur," he said.

"Do you see that black forest that looks like a charred log in the snow to the south and west of the mountains?
That is the break that leads into the country of the Athabasca.

Somewhere between this point and that we will strike the trail.

Mon Dieu, I had half expected to see them out there on the plain." "Who?
Meleese and Jackpine, or--" "No, the others, M'seur.